The military officials said they were confident that Syrian government installations that produced chlorine gas and sarin, a nerve agent, were destroyed or damaged.

China said it was “opposed to the use of force” in worldwide relations.

The Pentagon on Saturday said the strikes set the country’s chemical weapons capability back “for years”.

“We call upon Russian Federation to honor its commitment to ensure the Assad regime dismantles its chemical weapons program and never uses chemical weapons again”. US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis called the strikes a “one-time shot”, although Trump raised the prospect of further strikes if Assad’s government again used chemical weapons.

Images from the satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe now appear to show at least two of these three sites – the Barzeh Research and Development Center and the Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage complex – before and after the strikes.

President Donald Trump announced the military action from the White House late Friday, as explosions were rocking Damascus.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tweeted a message of support and said those who use chemical weapons “must be held accountable”.

“I was grateful that we can get rid of this major disaster”, Dr. Banna said. Trump blamed Assad for that attack, though some worldwide observers have said it is hard to prove who was behind it.

But the war dragged on for many years after that and the banner became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly conflict.

Putin called the strike a “destructive influence on the entire system of global relations” and said Moscow would call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The UN Council is set to meet at the request of Russian Federation, who claim the US-led missile strike in Syria was an attempt to hamper chemical weapons investigations in Douma, labelling bombing an “act of aggression”.

On the 15-member council only China and Bolivia voted in favour of Russia’s resolution.

■ April 6, 2017: In retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that killed almost 90 people, the U.S. fires 59 Tomahawk missiles at the government-controlled Shayrat air base in central Syria.

President Bashar al-Assad has been in power in Syria since 2000.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the overnight US-led missile attack on Syria and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, the Kremlin has said.

The administration maintains that the airstrikes were not connected to the campaign against ISIS in eastern Syria.

“When it comes to this use of chemical weapons, it is clear to Canada that chemical weapons were used and that they were used by the Assad regime”, Freeland said.

Saturday’s airstrikes drew support from the European Union, Germany, Israel and other allies.